You've probably heard a bit about #GetStartedRI, an annual pitch competition hosted by Cox Business. This year, it's coming to the WaterFire Arts Center and will feature pitches from six companies (get the full list here). The winner will receive $50,000, with an audience choice winner receiving $5,000.
But who makes this tough decision? A panel of esteemed judges, comprised of leaders in the local startup ecosystem. We've reached out to these individuals and will highlight their answers to our questions in a series throughout the week.
First up: Shannon Shallcross. Please note that her email responses may have been edited for length and clarity.
Rhode Island Inno: What do you do? Shallcross: I’m the co-founder of a health data science company called BetaXAnalytics. We make health care and pharmacy data transparent and actionable for health care stakeholders (employers, payers, providers) to improve health care costs and patient outcomes.
For any readers who are unfamiliar with the healthcare industry, there’s an issue right now in healthcare that out of 6,000 data scientists in the U.S., it’s been estimated that only 180 work in health care (this stat is from a May 2017 publication in the New England Journal of Medicine —The Case for Data Scientists Inside Healthcare). Since 30 percent of the world’s data is stored within the health care industry, the issue is even more urgent. In health care, we’re operating in a world with complex payment rules, the data is messy and the stakes are high — people’s health is on the line.
We are a group of clinical data scientists and pharmacoepidemiologists who use the power of data “for good” to detangle this data and to make it actionable — for the health of patients, and for the health of our clients’ bottom line.
RII: Why did you want to get involved in the #GetStartedRI pitch? Shallcross: Entrepreneurs make incredible sacrifices to bring their big ideas to life, and everything we can do in the local and business community to support them makes a prolific investment. It helps innovation to flourish in our state, and it boosts our economy as these companies grow. Unfortunately I can’t claim to have magic wisdom to share with our contestants. We’re all in different phases of our journey, and I’m sure I would learn much from them. But I’ve found that sharing stories, successes and encouragement with other entrepreneurs has a profound impact on the motivation to keep us moving forward against all odds.
RII: Any advice for the participants? Shallcross: For their pitches, my advice is just to have fun. It’s clear that they all have an extraordinary business concept to pitch that brought them to the stage, along with a sound business case behind their concept. There’s no use getting nervous when they’re up on stage telling the story that they’re committing their blood, sweat and tears to every day. They’ve earned the right to bypass stage fright here. I hope they enjoy the moment, and this audience will be cheering (very loudly!) for each one! Good luck.
RII: What’s the best piece of entrepreneurial insight you’ve ever received? Shallcross: Hands down, the best insight on bringing truly original ideas to life comes from Adam Grant’s book "Originals." His inspiration for the book was the worst investment decisions of his life — he decided to not invest in a startup founded by a group of his students. The company was Warby Parker, and it’s now valued at $1.75 billion.
So, he asked the question — why didn’t he think the company was a good idea when he heard the pitch? In the book, he uses studies and data from countless renowned artists and inventors throughout history to dispel some of the greatest myths about how to spot a winning idea. He disproves the widely accepted thoughts that successful entrepreneurs are free-wheeling risk-takers, first-movers or just plain lucky.
One of his insights is that great ideas come from regular people. Grant writes that “originals” — those people whose ideas take off — aren’t necessarily the extraordinary geniuses of the world. They are just those who are more afraid of what happens if they don’t act on their idea, and less afraid of what happens if they do.
RII: How do you define innovation? Shallcross: Innovation means stepping outside of conventional thinking to solve a problem. It is both the process and result of what happens when you take a new (and in the end, better) approach to finding a solution.
Disclosure: Cox Business is a founding partner of Rhode Island Inno.
